March 30, 2009

Florida college tuition hikes coming?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 30, 2009 10:02 AM

If Florida’s state universities need more funds to provide a quality higher education, where should the money come from: The students getting the education or the businesses who want better-educated workers?

As it stands, tuition for in-state students is around $3,800, well below the national average of $6,585.

Meanwhile, the University of Florida charges non-Florida residents $21,400 for undergraduate tuition this year.

It doesn’t take an MBA to figure out where such a big differential leads: More out-of-state admissions to boost the bottom line, and more in-state kids getting shut out of the state’s top-tier schools.

But sharp hikes could also shut more kids out if they simply can’t afford college.

That disturbs Stanley Tate, the Miami businessman who founded Florida’s popular prepaid college tuition program. The program allows parents to lock in today’s prices for their infants and children. He has started a campaign against the proposed tuition increases. If you agree, you can sign a petition online by going to www.FloridaAffordableTuition.com.

March 27, 2009

TV talk and Fort Lauderale police chief wife’s gun case

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 27, 2009 10:47 AM

I’ll be on a panel discussing the news of the week, including the wildly divergent gambling bills in the Legislature (the topic for my Sunday column), a proposed 1-cent sales-tax increase to fund schools and Miami-Dade’s approval of the Marlins Stadium.

As far as today’s paper, check out Tonya Alanez’s story on the handling of the criminal case involving Eleanor Adderley, wife of Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Franklin Adderley.

By now, it’s been pretty well-chronicled how the powerful, connected and rich seem to get some decent breaks compared to others caught up in our justice system. Think Swap Shop owner Preston Henn after his violent episode with BSO, or Robert Ray Huizenga’s treatment after his injurious third DUI.

But the thing that struck me from Adderley’s case is how our current set-up places so much discretion in the hands of prosecutors and so little in the hands of judges.

That’s because of mandatory minimum sentences. In this case, even without being charged with attempted murder, Eleanor Adderley could face a mandatory minimum 20 years for gun charges stemming from a shooting incident last summer.

Is it right that someone -- powerful or not -- could be sent away for 20 years for an incident in which nobody was injured?

That’s where a judge’s discretion and the facts of each individual case should come in.

But with mandatory minimums, the Legislature doesn’t allow judges discretion.

That leaves much of the power to the State Attorney’s Office, with the way it charges a case and the way it accepts plea deals.

The next proceeding in Adderley’s case is scheduled for April 17. Stay tuned.

March 26, 2009

South Florida's priorities: Money for Marlins, not teachers

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 26, 2009 11:42 AM

It’s not a fair comparison, for reasons I’ll spell out below, but there’s no denying the jarring juxtaposition of two headlines this week – Marlins get their stadium, Broward teachers might get stiffed on raises next year.

I’ve gotten a few calls from readers pointing out the dichotomy, and they asked a logical question: How come government finds money for rich ballclubs, but not hard-working teachers?

The answer: Our complicated tax-collection system is rigged this way.

The Marlins are getting their stadium money from Miami-Dade County (mostly from hotel bed tax money), and the city of Miami.

Teachers get paid by local school boards.

School board money comes from the state Legislature and local property taxes.

Bed tax money goes to local counties, to a separate kitty usually known as Tourist Development Funds. By law, the use of these taxes is restricted to something that can help or stimulate tourism. Things like convention centers, beach re-nourishment or entertainment/arts/sports complexes.

So no matter how much you think we need more police, improved roads or higher-paid teachers, these tourist taxes sometimes go to infuriating luxuries. Like a retractable-roof stadium which 90 percent of the population will never set foot in.

In my perfect universe, I’d re-write the law to allow counties to use bed-tax dollars for the county’s general budget, or even the school board budget, in tough times. If tourists can subsidize our sports teams, why can’t they also subsidize our kids?

A change like that would make building stadiums a bit of a harder sell.

Some Internet snipers on the comments board of the Jaablog site, where Broward’s courthouse crowd chatters, have taken issue with Richards’ response.

Some say the judge should have remained above the disorder in his court and allowed the bailiffs to handle the situation.

To them I say: Stick a gavel in it.

Richards’ response was perfectly human, even a little inspiring. Too often, the courthouse is a cold place where justice is blind, deaf and mute and emotionless bureaucrats go about their jobs. Judges are ordered to be dispassionate arbiters of justice.

Richards, a judicial rookie elected last year, showed a heart beneath the robe.

The judge tried to pry an attacker off the attacked. He tried to stop a man beating on a woman.

Good for him.

I don’t know if they have a page on this in the Code of Judicial Conduct, but it’s nice to know there are judges like Richards out there.

People willing to do the right thing, even if that conflicts with being the most professional thing.

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 24, 2009 08:17 AM

If the Marlins move to the old Orange Bowl site in 2012, how many games will you attend?

And how much would you be willing to pay for tickets and parking?

Before sharing some reader feedback, I want to link to two meat-on-the-bone critiques of the February version of the stadium deal. Read this and this. These were written by Michael Lewis, the publisher and editor of Miami Today, a business and civic journal (not to be confused with Michael Lewis, the sports/financial author.)

The deal approved Monday contained some slight modifications, but Lewis’ big-picture concerns are still valid.

As I wrote today, when it comes to these publicly-financed stadium deals, it’s buyer beware.

On to the mailbag:

From SJD: “So you have had enough of the $20 parking, the $6 hot dogs and the louts in the stands. You can eat before you go to the game sir…Your negativity on the Marlins Stadium issue is annoying or worse…I hope you do watch the game sir from your couch. I am sure you are a well paid staffer on the Sun Sentinel. I hope that jerks like you are the first to be let go from the paper.”

From Jay H. “Wooow…You are soooo right…Bravo for pointing out what so many of us have been feeling. I just realized that watching it from my couch is not only cheaper but hell its so much better, replays, bathroom 10 steps away, nobody yelling in my ear, hot dogs and a hamburger on the grill and I didn’t have to stand in line for 15 minutes and it didn’t cost me $20. Keep up the great work.”

From CaptCid: “SPORTS FAN MY A**..YOUR A BIGGER JERK THEN I THOUGHT...THIS IS A MINOR LEAGUE TOWN WITH MINOR LEAGUE WRITERS..RARELY SAY ANYTHING POSITIVE. ALL U KNOW IS FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL. A COLLEGE TOWN…TIME U’ALL GROW UP. GET IN THE BIG LEAGUES.”

From Michael T. : “The Marlins are getting away with what other sports teams get away with: they are letting the government foot the big part of the bill for a new playing facility. These pro teams can afford to pay for ALL of the cost of a new playing facility…I agree that the prices of things at sporting events are outrageous. The best way for fans to show their true feelings about the high prices of sporting events is NOT TO GO to these events. If enough of these fans do what I've just written, maybe these teams will get the message.”

March 20, 2009

Iraq War at Six: Has it been worth it?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 20, 2009 08:51 AM

It’s been six years since U.S. bombs started falling on Baghdad.

Six years of war in Iraq -- that’s longer than American involvement in World War II.

Has it been worth it?

And do we even think about it?

The war’s anniversary isn’t even front-page news anymore (it was on page 3 of the Sun Sentinel, 22A of the Miami Herald). Most of us are more concerned about our NCAA Tournament pools, or the release of Twilight on DVD.

But some people think about the war every day -- the mothers who’ve lost sons, spouses who’ve lost partners, children who’ve lost parents.

Today I think about the funerals of young men I’ve attended that now seem so long ago -- Tim Burke in Hollywood, Terry Odonez in Pembroke Pines. I think about Carlos Arredondo, the father in Hollywood who was so distraught over the death of his son Alex that he torched a Marine van and almost burned himself to death.

Saddam Hussein is long dead, as are his sons.

So are thousands of American troops, along with tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) Iraqi civilians.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on the effort, hundreds of billions of dollars that our own troubled country could surely use.

George W. Bush and his gang of neo-cons are gone from the White House.

It’s just the opening shot (or shock) in the rate-hike process, with final approval required by the Florida Public Service Commission.

So think of it as the starting point in any negotiation. One side throws out a ridiculously high figure, and then settles for a lower figure after the dust settles.

Well, at least that’s what I’m hoping happens. You never know with the PSC, but there should be enough public outrage and pushback from the usual parties (like the Office of Public Counsel, AARP and major power users) to lower the proposed hike.

Is FPL’s request ridiculously high? Well, seeking a 12.5 percent return on equity in the current economic climate sure seems it -- at this point, anything that’s not a loss would be palatable to most investors. I’m thinking the final figure will be 9-10 percent, which means the base-rate increase won’t be so dramatic.

(An aside: Like the entire market, FPL Group’s stock has taken a hit from its peak in late 2007, when it traded over $70. It closed at a respectable $49.93 on Wednesday, and the utility’s parent company announced a dividend increase last month.)

Also worth remembering: Base rates amount to less than half the typical FPL electric bill. The rest comes from fuel charges, taxes and other ticky-tack fees.

FPL is trying to downplay the rate-hike request by saying its projected fuel costs will drop in 2010 -- leading to a slight DECREASE in the average overall bill.

I don’t know if I’m buying that. As John Dorschner points out in his Miami Herald story, those figures are just estimates and might not pan out. It all depends on what the oil and natural gas markets do, along with the incomprehensible intricacies of FPL’s hedging department.

FPL also likes to say that its rates are below the national average.

True, but overall electric consumption in South Florida tends to be higher than the national average because we’ve got our air conditioners cranking higher and for longer than most others.

So using the figures of a mythical 1,000-kilowatt-hour monthly user is a nice PR spin device, but most homeowners I know use a lot more juice, especially during the summer.

We all knew this day was coming, because FPL has long signaled it intended to seek an increase in base rates, which hasn’t happened since 1985. Of course, bills have increased significantly during this time because of fuel charges and all the other things FPL is allowed to sock us for, including hurricane damage and construction of new power plants.

If a rate increase is approved, the PSC should get something more for consumers in the process.

The thing I’d like to see most: Shared risk of hurricane costs. That would give the utility a bigger incentive to do a more proactive job on maintenance.

March 18, 2009

Is it time to boycott AIG?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 18, 2009 09:10 AM

I suppose it’s time to hit bonus-crazed AIG where it hurts: In the pocketbook.

But just when I’m ready to drop my auto insurance policy with AIG, I have second thoughts. After all, if we taxpayers now own 80 percent of the conglomerate, do I really want to weaken the company by boycotting its well-run insurance arm when it’s the financial services division that has wreaked havoc on the economy?

I’m conflicted.

First, the big picture. I’m steaming mad that AIG continues to hand out outrageous “retention bonuses” to executives that don’t really deserve to be retained. The tally is now at some $200 million and counting, between $55 million paid in December and another $165 million paid last week.

Here’s the kicker. Eleven of 73 executives who got bonuses over $1 million no longer work for the company. That means bonuses meant to keep people from leaving are going to people who are leaving.

Yeah, tell that to all the union workers at General Motors or newspapers who’ve been forced to make contract concessions for the greater good of their companies.

Surely AIG executives could do the same. And should.

That’s where public backlash and economic pressure of consumers come in. If all of AIG’s insurance customers start bailing, the company might be forced to do something.

So I’m tempted to make a switch.

The problems:

1) I’m a satisfied customer. I’ve been involved in one accident with AIG as my insurer, when I was hit by a drunken driver, and the company handled everything smoothly.

2) Who do I switch to? I’m not going to give State Farm or Allstate my business, not the way they’ve treated Florida homeowners by cherry-picking windstorm insurance and fleeing the state. And I’m sick of the GEICO gecko and all their damn advertising.

I’ll see what the AIG CEO says today and how this plays out before making a move. But I’m seriously considering it, just to send a message.

March 17, 2009

165 million reasons to hate AIG

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 17, 2009 12:14 PM

I have my car insured with AIG. Actually the subsidiary is not called AIG anymore, even though it’s still AIG. A few months ago, the marketing geniuses decided to re-brand themselves (Gee, I wonder why?)

So now I send my monthly premiums to something called 21st Century Insurance.

The company isn’t fooling me.

It’s still AIG.

That’s just one reason I hate AIG, the insurance-finance giant deemed too big too fail that has gotten some $170 billion in government support since September.

I can only guess how many millions the company has spent on the name change. And I can only guess how many people are going to collect a bonus for the brilliant idea of coming up with a name change.

Do these people collect bonuses for waking up in the morning, breathing and drinking martinis, too?

Sure seems like it.

Because this whole business of $165 million in bonuses being doled out while the company has gone down the drain, including to the executives who presided over AIG’s involvement with toxic mortgage investments, is beyond outrageous.

It should be criminal.

There’s a lot I don’t understand about these bonuses.

Such as, since when did bonuses become automatic no matter how lousy a company performs?

And how is it that bonuses in the world of finance have grown to be so much larger than actual salaries?

And how is it that bonuses get spelled out in contracts in advance without there being some sort of exclusionary clauses or performance-based restrictions? As in, “No bonuses will be awarded if our asses get caught in a sling, we lose $61 billion in a quarter and we depend on taxpayers to bail us out to the tune of $180 billion.”

Is there no shame left in the universe?

Because anyone at AIG who thinks they deserve a bonus deserves something else entirely.

So what should happen to the $165 million meant for AIG executives?

I heard a fine idea yesterday from a taxi driver in Brooklyn, where I was spending time with a sick family member. He said AIG should distribute the money to all its low-level employees, not the executives.

“Give it to the janitors, the secretaries, the security guards,” he said. “They work just as hard as anyone.”

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 12, 2009 09:59 AM

You’d have thought by now, in the year 2009, the law would be the other way around.

But not in Flori-duh.

Give Rich credit for continuing her quixotic quest.

She’s made a push on both fronts in the past, but the efforts haven’t gotten far with the righteous right-wingers of Tallahassee.

Even though gays are legally allowed to become foster parents for children in the state’s welfare system, they are still prohibited from taking the logical last step -- adopting them permanently.

Rich is the prime sponsor of two bills, SB460 and SB500, to right that wrong. Rich would like the Legislature to erase the 1970s Anita Bryant-era ban in order to make an ongoing court fight over gay adoption moot.

As explained in an e-mail by Kristin Carter, Rich's legislative aide:

SB 460 would give judges the latitude to permit adoption by a gay person under certain circumstances – basically for foster parents or guardians who already have custody of the child, and the judge finds adoption would be in the child’s best interests.

This is the approach that Senator Rich’s legislation on this issue has taken in the past. This year, she decided to file it again, and then also decided to file a complete repeal of the ban on adoption based on sexual orientation, which is what SB 500 would do.

Fat chance. Even though there is a twin bill in the House to repeal the ban (HB 413, filed by Rep. Mary Brandenburg, D-West Palm Beach) the Republican-dominated House is usually loathe to such progressive thinking. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m betting by the end of the session on May 1 the gay adoption ban stays in place.

The bestiality ban, SB448, has a better shot. There is already a twin House bill with several Republican co-sponsors. The bill should get the backing of powerful animal-rights groups, and I can’t imagine anybody working the other side of this issue. (Unless there’s a North American Man-Sheep Love Association out there that I’m not aware of).

March 10, 2009

School cuts: Besides sports, how about some FCATs?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 10, 2009 08:40 AM

Let’s say someone made me Master of the Abacus for a day. If I was Lord of the Budgets, here’s what I’d cut to save public schools money: Middle-school sports and all FCATs given to middle school and elementary school students.

Any cuts to high school sports are wrong, because advanced high school kids need the organized element of certain sports if they want to attain lucrative college scholarships.

The last thing we should be doing in these financially perilous times is shutting off another avenue to college for struggling families.

That said, middle school sports seem a luxury we might not be able to afford.

When I went to school in New York (gosh, I’m sounding more like my parents all the time) there was no such thing as middle-school sports. That said, there absolutely should be physical education classes in elementary and middle schools, something that teaches kids to move and use their bodies.

But the big cut I’d like to see: FCATs for non-high school kids.

How many millions do the state and local school districts spend on preparing and administering these standardized tests?

By all means, we should keep some standardized testing to measure achievement and proficiency before awarding high school diplomas.

But standardized multi-subject high-pressure testing for kids in elementary and middle school seems like an idea we should no longer spring for, especially in tough times.

March 9, 2009

RIP Willie Mae Williams, inauguration trip bus rider

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 9, 2009 09:02 AM

When I met Willie Mae Williams before we took a long bus trip to Barack Obama’s frigid inauguration in January, she told me about the double heart-bypass surgery she had last June.

“I hope my heart doesn’t stop,” she said, half-jokingly.

Last week it did.

Williams died at 71 after complications from an aneurysm, according to her friend Julia McElvy.

“There were people telling her not to go on that trip, but she kept talking about how happy she was that she had gone,” said McElvy. “She wanted to see it with their own eyes.”

Williams, of Lauderdale Lakes, grew up in segregated Fort Lauderdale, and she told me of the literal wall that separated the black and white neighborhoods along with the other slights that accompanied the Jim Crow era.

Being part of the first black president’s inauguration meant the world to her.

“I’d walk there if I had to,” she said before the trip.

McElvy and Williams worked together at the Northwest Federated Woman’s Club in Fort Lauderdale, a senior center. Williams, a former bus driver for Broward schools, drove the senior center’s bus on day trips.

March 6, 2009

I-595 expansion all wrong -- shouldn't median be used for rail transit?

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 6, 2009 09:27 AM

Everyone talks a good game about bringing more mass transit to South Florida, but when push comes to shove (and shovel comes to dirt) we end up being more slavishly devoted to gas-guzzling autos than ever.

Mainly because she shredded Jenne’s contention that his crimes were “personal mistakes” that had nothing to do with his public office.

“Simply stated, petitioner abused his position and violated the public trust by using his position as sheriff for personal gain,” Parrish wrote in the 26-page recommended order released on Tuesday.

Perhaps the most maddening thing about Jenne’s conduct since his misconduct has been his reluctance to admit the obvious -- that he misused his public office.

He pleaded guilty to mail fraud and tax evasion in federal court in 2007, and he agreed to a sentencing range that added punishment “because of the defendant’s abuse of the public trust.”

But then he did a flip-flop, saying his crimes were unrelated to his elected position as Broward’s top cop.

In the pension filings, Jenne argued he didn't abuse his position or “corruptly benefit” from it.

And in public remarks outside federal court after he entered his plea agreement in September 2007, Jenne said he made “personal mistakes” and showed “poor judgment in the conduct of some personal matters.”

“Please know that I would never deliberately or consciously violate or compromise my sworn duties as sheriff,” Jenne said.

That was an odd position for someone who admitted using his BSO secretaries as money conduits, taking money and other benefits from those who did business with BSO, and using a BSO attorney to handle a code-enforcement matter for personal property.

Wrote Parrish: “It is undisputed that (Jenne) accepted unlawful payments and benefits in exchange for services. Further that his position as sheriff facilitated his conduct is also undisputed…All of this was part of a concerted effort to secure benefits or profit, gain or advantage for himself.”

March 3, 2009

I hope Rush Limbaugh fails

> Posted by Michael Mayo on March 3, 2009 08:33 AM

So nice to hear that a comfortable, cocooned and corpulent multi-millionaire keeps rooting for the president to fail. Rush Limbaugh said it a few days before Barack Obama was inaugurated, and he reiterated (or reignited) the sentiment over the weekend at an annual conservative conference.

By extension that means Limbaugh wants the United States of America to fail, just as we’re headlong into the biggest economic dive since the Great Depression.

Millions are losing their jobs, homes and life savings, but that’s OK for radio blowhard Rush and his conservative cohorts. To them, the fate of the economy and the nation is merely just another partisan ballgame with a scoreboard.

The really important thing to them is that things get worse -- much worse -- with a Democrat as the nation’s quarterback.

‘Aha!’, some will say. Didn’t Bush haters also root for Bush and his policies to fail?

Uh, no.

After Sept. 11, 2001, when Bush said we wanted Osama bin Laden “dead or alive,” liberals might have grimaced at the indelicate cowboy phrasing, but we concurred with the sentiment.

We all wanted to get the son of a bitch, and we all rooted for the President (and all the forces at his disposal) to succeed, not fail.

Then there was the Iraq War. At the time, I and many others thought it was a huge mistake, the wrong war in the wrong place that diverted precious resources away from the real threats -- Al Qaeda and the unstable areas of Afghanistan/Pakistan.

What I heard (and said) a lot was, “I hope Bush proves me wrong, and I hope this thing is as quick and easy as Cheney says, but I think this could be a big mistake.”

Ordinarily, I try not to pay attention to blowhards such as Rush and Bill O’Reilly. They’re in the business of sparks and friction. They make their money by generating heat, not light.

But the sheer inconsistency that comes from these people’s minds and mouths truly astonishes me, along with the power and respect these people are accorded.

When Limbaugh first made his “I hope he fails” remarks on the radio in January, he said: “What is unfair about my saying I hope liberalism fails? Liberalism is our problem. Liberalism is what's gotten us dangerously close to the precipice here.”

Really? I thought it was eight years of Bush, the most radically reckless conservative imaginable, that got us here.

Limbaugh, with his estimated $33 million annual salary, is part of the problem. I read an astonishing stat the other day: in 1980, the top one percent of American earners took home eight percent of all income.

Now the top one percent takes home 23 percent of income.

Tax policies that allowed this to happen since the Reagan revolution have effectively gutted this country’s middle class.

This isn’t time for the usual political/philosophical blame game. This country is in crisis and things need to be fixed.

It’s time for some fundamental changes in areas like health insurance and education, along with renewed regulation of vital areas like banking and investments.

MICHAEL MAYO has been the Sun-Sentinel's Broward news columnist since 2002. He is not a failed sports writer, as some detractors contend, just a lapsed one. He came to South Florida to cover sports in 1989. He now takes aim at everything under the sun. He was born in Brooklyn, went to college in Boston and has also lived in London and Spartanburg, S.C. His hobbies include losing weight (unsuccessfully) and losing golf balls (very successfully).